Techmeyer Family Blog

James is Married!

2011-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

I was encouraged to post a couple of photos from the blessed occasion. James married Christy Nielson on May 5, 2011. They are having an open house on May 21, come one come all. These photos were taken with a Canon Rebel T2i - which I flippin love!!!

Everyone!

Just Married!

The Techmeyer's

James and his siblings

The 3 boys - look closely!

Bountiful, UT Temple

Cute!

How do you move a train?

2011-03-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

I have to start out by saying that Gpa Nebeker knew how to build stuff to last. When he built the train set up in his loft, he wasn't planning on taking it out - ever! So he was our biggest foe in trying to prove him wrong in thinking that it could be done. In reality it could be done, but I would not attach the word simple to any part of moving that train set.

Brandon and Carl in the loft


Mike w Brandon tieing the ropes on

Video Capture of the "over the rail moment"

Step 1: Get it out of the loft. Done. Step 2: Take a break. Doing.

Kyle brought the trailer over and it fit quite nicely.

What goes out has to come back in...except it's not that easy.

Brandon is moving mountains to get this to work. And that mountain wasn't just going to bust off. I told you that Gpa knew how to build.

We had almost 0 damage in the move. The control box broke off, and a few trees. That's about it.


And this is where it sits today, relocated in the Case's Basement. It'll need some re-assembly and a bit of touch up paint, but amazingly the track is all intact after all that.

Gma graciously agreed to take the video. It doesn't quite do it justice, but it gives you the idea of the peril that I was in as we were taking it out of the loft.

I love Summer!

2010-07-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a long weekend camping with the Utah Techmeyer siblings (I have to distinguish, just in case you are confused). It felt good to relax and do nothing for a few days. Of course "nothing" is a relative term, because we did a lot!
It was an exciting start when we found out that we were in Skunk territory.

We came across a couple of them over the course of a couple of days. We tried to avoid them, except when we were chasing them down to get a picture....
We played in the water all weekend - river, pool, and the lake.

The river ran parallel to our camp, so we had a private and free reign of the river.

I sat out in the river and ate my lunch with Sarah and Neil. Very refreshing

The resort also had a pool, that we went to a couple of times. Pools are always a good time.

We also enjoyed a day at the lake, that was only about 2 miles from the resort. We took our rubber raft and paddled around the lake. We had a lot of fun.

Jenni fell over in her chair, and naturally, we took pictures before helping her up.

Here's some more pictures of the group.

This is a panoramic picture of our camp, all set up and full of fun.

Renaissance Faire

2010-06-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Over the past year(s) David and James and I guess now I have been hobby-ing with leather work, metal work and the such. Mom has always been good at fabric-ing together beautiful articles of clothing our of anything. A couple of years ago we went to the the "Ren Faire" and have enjoyed going, and have gone back each year since. Little by little, we have pieced together costumes either through making, buying, or by gifts.
I'll start with us in our "period" clothing. Then we'll add in the iconic "3 Musketeers"

Mom is responsible for all of the clothing. A few years ago she bought the 3 of us real knee high boots. She made all of the shirts, and pants. She made hers and Hollie's and the little girls' dresses. She also gifted us the tunic's in order to complete the Musketeer attire. David made his own sword, as well as the one James used. James initiated the leather work and assisted or did all of the leather belting and harnessing with David (Baldric's). I bought my sword a couple years ago for a Zorro costume that has worked quite well for this too.

And here we are - "The 3". So here's a little story: Last Halloween I dressed up as a Musketeer and went to a party and the only question I got was "where's the other 2?" Ironically, David and James went to a party as 2 musketeers, and the only question they got was "where is the other one?" So we decided that under no terms would be ever not dress up together. So we get the the Renaissance Faire and undoubtedly the most common question was "Where's D'Artagnan"? So we figured we can't please people.

BA BA BA BAAAAAAMMMM!!! Introducing his Majesty, the King of Scotland!!! We were permitted into The King's Court - visiting from Scotland - and were asked to escort the King's Court in the precession to the Jousting Event. So we stood in line behind the king and passed through the Faire. The Bugler bloated his horn parting the crowds with bows and respect so the King and his court could pass. I obtained a couple of pictures from Rudy Van Bree Photography (Kind Regards)

And here is a group picture of the King's Court following the Jousting Event.

April Showers bring May Snowstorms...?

2010-05-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, you're all thinking it, and I'm just saying it...Snow in May...? This is a picture outside my front door on May 24:

Now desperate times breed desperate measures. It's now been how many months since we've been able to do the things of summer - a lot. So now I plead with the powers that be, don't make this continue. This is Colette and her sisters indulging in an impulsive summer moment: roasting a marshmallow.

#27

2010-04-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

We now officially have 27 nieces and nephews! Wyatt Val was born on April 1st. I kept waiting for it to turn into an April Fool's Joke, but papa Coombs wasn't joking when we sent out a picture as his proof. Congrats to Shayla and Kyle!
We have 16 on the Techmeyer side and now 11 on the Case side of the family. My role in life right now is to be the "Favorite Uncle"!

Castle Time

2010-04-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

The month of March is a special one - mostly because there are several birthdays and they are all for little girls. So as per tradition - here are the castle cakes. And I'll throw in a couple random pictures from the day to give you an idea of how much fun we're having!

David wouldn't set down his doll for the picture.

James was displaying his skills with leather. Click on the picture and look at the details...

Dad was in Town!

2010-04-04T08:10:00.001-07:00

Dad and Linda were in town the first week in March for 2 baby blessings on the same day! First was little Zoey's blessing. Then we got up and rushed to little Lincoln's blessing. We spent the weekend enjoying time with the family and eating lots of really good food.

St George

2010-02-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

January 8-9 we headed down to St George for a Conference for work. The weather was a wonderful break from the glum that we've been stuck in recently!

Inspirational Thought by James

2010-02-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Washington DC!

2009-11-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

Never have I been in a place that was so rich in history, and beauty, and significance to my life than last week. My sis ter and her family live just outside Washington DC and a couple months ago she highlighted a plane fare sale and strongly encouraged us to take advantage of the free time that we have on our hands and come and visit. So after much deliberation (probably a few more seconds than was necessary) we bought our tickets and worked towards preparing for an awesome week. Little did we realize, it was nothing that we could have expected!

Our First day we went to Mt Vernon - and I don't know what I expected to see or find, but my sister has a Season Pass if that gives you an idea of how cool it was. The expansive estate was impressive - yes. The mansion and the dozen+ out buildings were impressive - yes. But the thing that was the most enlightening about the experience was the insight that we got into the man George Washington. Besides being The military man he was innovative, creative, brilliant, business smart, hard working, an amazing leader, and we also saw proof that he was a loving and compassionate person. Oh, and he was really rich too. His estate was not only totally and entirely self sufficient, he was so efficient, that he sold his products all throughout the colonies.

We took the "National Treasure 2" tour - and saw a couple of the iconic things that were shown in the movie. The coolest of which was the basement of the mansion. We saw the replica of the cornerstone and the vaults that were shown in the movie. The actual cornerstone is now in the museum.
This is where we ate lunch that day. In a forested area next to the parking lot. Beautiful place.

Pregnant Sisters!

2009-10-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was dinner at Mom's for our monthly bday party and get together. Jen and Sarah are both looking very cute and very pregnant!

End of the Rainbow

2009-09-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

So there's the story about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow right? Well I must have been outside taking pictures too long, because by the time I got to the end of the rainbow the pot was gone....

All for one...

2009-09-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

We're getting ready for Halloween!

Many Week Update

2009-08-17T15:49:00.001-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted anything - NOTHING - since I cut my finger in half. Well, since that was the last thing that I mentioned - I'll give an update. I have my fingerprint back. Meaning it's healed just fine. It's still a bit sensitive to hot things, but it's good.

I guess I'll just plop some pictures on here with some explanations - brief - and share a couple of events that have taken place in the past many weeks.

First of all - I got laid off on July 1. Yeah, I know what your thinking - on a Wednesday? Yeah, can you believe it? I'm sitting there working my tail off, and they asked me in to The Boss' office and that was it. So after almost 2 years - I'm out. I last got laid off in June of 2007. It worked out then, so hopefully it'll work out this time. :)

I went shooting with the boys and hope to have a video of some of the explosions, mayhem, and destruction posted soon - don't hold your breathe on the soon part.

I've been boating several times this summer and on this dreadful day I broke my prized slalom ski. :( It wasn't really my fault, I had the ski in the V of the rope and away the boat went with my ski wrapped in the V and it was pulled perpendicular to the boat with the full thrust of the boat pulling on the center of the ski and it "blew".

James was in town over the 4th of July. He brought his friend Melodie with him.

Well that gives me something new - well old, but new to you.

I cut my finger!

2009-06-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

So there I was, just washing dishes and I looked down and blood was gushing everywhere! I was cleaning an Apple Wedger that we bought from Pampered Chef. We just bought it so I figure that I didn't realize it's effectiveness until I used it on my finger. We had an old one which is really the culprit in the whole deal. I didn't think that they were sharp. Well it's a razor blade! Oh I should mention that it was my middle finger on my left hand.

So we went down to the InstaCare and waited a good hour before someone took us back (after I was told that they rush bleeding people through. - ha!) By the time a Dr saw me it had been an hour and a half and the bleeding had slowed down! She looked at it and asked whether I wanted to glue it or have stiches. I opted for glue since it was faster and I wouldn't have to come back and have them taken out. She did say that it would have been 4 stiches otherwise.

Well she numbed it and it was still bleedingso she put Silver Nitrate on it which helped the blood to clot. Is still didn't stop bleeding so she put a tourni-cot on it to stop. it worked and she glued it. She told me to take it easy, but alas, the next day the glue blew and the blood flowed again. should make for an interesting scar.

CAUTION - I will inclued a couple pictues for the morbidly curious. They could be considered graphic.

Still Bleeding:

Juiceing it full of numbness:

Post glue with the Tourni-cot still on it:

10 hour days

2009-06-11T06:46:00.001-07:00

It's been just over a year since I started working 4 10-hour days. I was thinking about what I've gained and what I've lost. Here's some of my numbers:
50 - Extra days off work (all but 2 weeks)
3,500 - miles that I haven't traveled commuting
60 - hours I've saved not sitting in my car
100 - gallons of gas I've saved not driving to work
200 - hours of sleep I've lost to get up an hour early
150 - hours of sleep I've gained back on Friday
50 - net loss of sleep
50 - 3-day weekends
50 - times I was glad that it was finally Thursday
450 - hours I've gained on Friday
$350 - money I've saved in gas and an oil change
50 - opportunities to take a nap in the middle of the day

So in conclusion, it was an adjustment working the longer days, but after getting used to it, it's definitely been tolerable. Monday mornings have always been hard, but Thursday's have always been very nice!

Air Show

2009-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is a group picture that was taken at two different times, but I wanted to give you an idea of the crew that we had. Our backyard has a mostly unobstructed view of the valley to the West and South. We're about a mile from the Hill AFB runway by line of sight and if it means avoiding a half a million people this is a great alternative to going on base.

In the morning we went on base and enjoyed the static displays.

Even though this was an Air Force party, the Army showed up with their Apache Helicopter. Most of the aerial stunt planes were on display too. We saw this Dragon plane a few hours later doing loops and twirls!

We walked through the cargo hold of a C-5! That's a sight to see. That thing is HUGE! And here I am next to my favored A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog". I lived on a military base in Japan exactly 10 years ago. While I was there I decided for and later against a career in the Air Force. I decided that I wanted to be a pilot, and my favored craft was the A-10. There were several F-16 pilots that were church members that I was able to spend some time with. I gained an admiration for them and sought after that career. Anyway. Then I decided that military life wasn't for me.

Then we went back to the house and watched the remainder of the show from there. The Thunderbirds were an obvious high point, since they were the main event. Other note worthy points was the cargo plane flyover - right over. It shook the rafters. I'm not sure what it was, but it was too close to take a picture with David's zoom lens.

We also had a F-22 Raptor buzz our house two days in a row. That was something else too. You can't understand how a plane like that can sneak up on you until it does.

Thank you everyone who was able to come and enjoy the show!

NOTE: I didn't try to take any pictures of any aerial borne planes because I knew I couldn't do it justice. My bro did though and I hope to get them soon!

Deck Project Update

2009-06-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

I had a plan and I worked out the details so that it would work out just how I wanted. We decided that we would do vinyl rails on our deck when we built it last year. Out of a lack of necessity or money or whatever we haven't done it yet. So we decided that it was finally time. So I decided to go through R&L Vinyl which looks like a great place and we had some friends recommend them to us. Well since I have no where else to vent - here it comes.

Notice any problem with this picture? Oh yeah - no rails. Hhhhmmmm, that's because I couldn't buy them. So here's the short of the long. I called them on a Wednesday, and a salesman came out like the next day to give me a bid. I thought that it was a little pricey but that was fine, I took it as though I hadn't priced around enough - whatever. So I got him back on the phone and told him that I wanted to get the vinyl deck rails. He came back on Saturday afternoon to have me sign the contract and take half the money as a deposit. At that point I made it very clear that I needed the materials by Thursday at the very latest, because I had time off of work and had help on the labor. No problem, so I signed the paper and gave him my money.
He also promised a call on Wed to confirm pickup on Thurs - which never came so I called and left a message with both the company and the salesguy. Thursday (delivery day) arrives and at noon I finally call both the salesman and the company back and leave messages again. Finally I receive a call back from the company and they inform me that the materials won't be ready until Monday (days after promised). I was upset, but lets see what the salesman says. Finally he calls me back, realises the problem after I chew his ear off, then after a few calls gets back to me and says that he personally talked to the shop crew and they'll have them ready Friday by noon at the latest. Satisfied with that I let my help loose and wait until Friday afternoon.
Don't worry the story is almost over. Friday comes and after hours of calling back and forth I get a hold of the shop guy who informs me that the salesman never called him about changing my order. Yeah, let me repeat that for a dramatic effect - LIED TO MY FACE. Oh - and it will still be ready by Monday. Not good enough - not nearly good enough.
So here's the problem with Monday. The pressing issue about Thursday was that would give me all day Friday to install them to be ready for our air show party that we hosted on Saturday. Otherwise I don't need the rails installed until our next outdoor event that involves large amounts of children.... So in the end the Manager calls and appologizes and tells me that there's no way to deliver as promised. So what is one to do? Remember that this is after frustrating hour after nausiating hour of back and forth and back and forth then being lied to, then being strung out. So I told him that I didn't feel like his business deserved my money and I wanted my money back.
I would distinguish $1000+ a large purchase. And when I make a large purchase I demand a certain level of customer service, professionalism, and quality. I don't feel like a received a single one of those things of the course of those 10 days.
To the extent of your inconvenience, I recommend going anywhere else.

That's what I call a campfire!

2009-06-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Actually it wasn't a campfire, it was more like a good marshmallow fire. Since it was the last weekend in May we decided that it was high time to have a s'more fire (s'more of what?). So we went to Colette's parents house and camp-fired with Colette's sister and her other sister and families. It was a very nice evening, it was warm enough to sit by the fire with just your shorts and a t-shirt (Well arguably).

We like to make this cinnamon marshmallow biscuit thing. What you do is wrap a raw biscuit around the marshmallow then fire the biscuit until it's golden brown. Disclaimer: the biscuit filled with marshmallow goo will be hot (duh!). Then you roll it in butter then roll it in cinnamon. It's straight from heaven! That's what we were making.

Colette's parents cut down like 6 CottonWood trees this spring so we have tons (literally) of wood, so I hope to have many fires this summer.

Renaissance Faire

2009-05-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

I didn't know if this was something that I should admit to doing, but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the unique atmosphere. I went with Colette and my bro David and my Mother. We all dressed up and therefore were admitted at half price. It was also one of those things where I would have felt out of place had I not dressed up.... You know what I mean.

We went to the Renaissance Faire last year as well and had fun enough of a time that we decided to come back.

Here's David. Mom made his shirt and James made his pants. Well James made the pants that he was wearing. They are made out of corduroy, but the funny thing about them is that the grooves run horizontally, so it looks like the wearer has a had sense of direction.

David also tried on a chain mail head piece - looks like it fit pretty good, it weighed like 10+ pounds. He said that it was comfy though. It was a struggle to get off, it was like trying to get Chinese handcuffs off of your fingers. Pretty funny to watch.

We also saw a wedding taking place. Very pretty. Kind of cool. And if you look closely, you can see Mom and David in the background, which is actually on the other side of the watery mass.

Guns and Reactive Targets

2009-05-05T12:58:00.001-07:00

First of all - This is the 100th post on this blog! Very cool!

We went shooting. When I say we, I mean David and Kurtis, and his brother Kevin and a friend Ryan and Me (if you don't know who me is, then you don't care anyway).

We went up near Avon, UT. There is a nice open field there next to the road that has been terrorized by the likes of us and our guns before so we thought that it would be convenient.
Ryan brought the makings of some "reactive targets", which was really a lot of fun to shoot at. David brought an old old TV and we used that as a target as well. David made a Clay Pigeon Target that basically drops more targets down as you blow away the ones on the bottom. worked pretty good. It's designed to be shot at with a gun, not a shotgun....

The AR-15

It was snowing when we got there and then the weather tapered off. It was still wet and very muddy though. I happened to catch David doing a little dance in the mud trying to get his shoe back while he was balancing his video camera in one hand, and his shotgun in the other.

Here is a representation of our "Reactive Targets". Enjoy.

and one more

Vegas!

2009-04-23T12:00:00.001-07:00

Nothing like a free trip to Vegas (well free hotel stay at the gruesome expense of an endless time-share presentation)! We went with David and Hollie. We had a fabulous time! We did a lot of relaxing and a fair amount of eating and overall, had a lot of fun!

Colette and I flew down in the morning and were about to satisfy our (time-share) obligation early so that we had the rest of the weekend to relax. For those who are curious, we are still time-share-less. Although the idea appeals to us, we're just not there yet. We want to focus on getting a family (children) before we worry about how to spend time with them. And that was our excuse we used for them.

Here I am with Caesar! I had to climb up on the statue to get the picture with him. No trip to his palace is complete without a photo op!

We went to the Shark Tank - Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was quite impressive, and surprisingly extensive for a hotel. Of course this is Vegas - everything is bigger in Vegas. We had a lot of fun there.

Here is an artistic view of our hotel that we stayed at. This is a picture from the pool. Alas, I have no pool pictures to share in a public forum. Now if we were water skiing then that would be different...! It's time to get the boat out - it's boating time!

Little Sahara

2009-04-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sand Dunes! I went down South to the sand dunes of Little Sahara near Jericho this weekend. Since it was Easter weekend, it is Mecca weekend for many sand enthusiasts. When I say 'many' that is an extreme understatement! As of Friday there were 14,000 people there and they expected as many as twice that!

I went with Sarah and Neil etc (family and friends).

Self portrait with Sarah in the background

Timer Photo: Neil, Brian, Mike, Sarah, Kevin

Overlooking the valley with a HUGE drop off behind us that we wend down!

The stuckest I have ever been in my 4-wheeler. That's because I was driving through the hill. I stopped on the uphill slope (lost momentum) and I wasn't about to back down - hah. So I essentially drove through the cap of the hill. Made for a cool picture - thanks Neil.

Cute Sarah and Neil

Me overlooking the "City" below. - oh and I enlarged the helicopter so that you could see that there were helicopters circling around.

Moab in the Winter - Part II

2009-04-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Part II is complete with pictures of snow! Our snow day consisted of mostly the windows section in Arches. We decided to stick to short hikes and call it good after that. I took a lot of landscape pictures covered in snow and you'll have to ask for a private showing because I took way too many pictures to put on the blog. Here are a couple of our snow in April in Arches pictures.

AND - for those jeep loving fools out there - what is a trip to Moab without some cool Jeep pictures? Well first of all this guy wins the 'Coolest Rig Award' and below is definately a nominee for the 'Jeep that I'm going to own one day Award'.

Then when it was time to pack up and head out the sun came out and we stopped for one last picture.

Moab in the Winter - Part I

2009-04-06T10:07:00.001-07:00

After our first day we had a couple of Wintery Days. We didn't let a little rain or snow stop us from having fun.

We did a bunch of hiking in Arches in the weather. Our first hike was the Delicate Arch hike and it was raining when we got there and we almost chickened out but decided we'd do it anyway. It was in the mid 40's and the entire hike we went back and forth taking off our extra layers of clothes, then putting them back on. It was fun.

Dr Shurtleff suggested that we go on a hike up Mill Creek Canyon a while ago, which is a hike to a watering hole with a waterfall. Last year we tried it out, and apparently missed the Y in the trail at some point and never found the watering hole. Well being determined to find it this time we set out in the afternoon and when we started at the trailhead it was sunny and pleasant. Well we did find the watering hole and about the time we got there the rain came tumbling down. Since it was awesome weather a mile and a half ago, our rain gear was still in the car.

And finally - here is a picture of our destination. We almost froze to death, but we didn't die, and we lived to tell the tail. Sure was a pretty place! Would love to go back on a warm day and go cliff diving. Sounds fun!

Moab in the Spring

2009-04-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Moab is a destination that is sought after quite frequently in our family, and it's almost exclusively a destination in either the Spring or the Fall. The summer months becomes pretty much unbearably and oppressively hot. I've never gone in the Winter because it's not as much fun to camp in the snow. So April has been considered an ideal time.

Day one was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for better weather.

We planned this trip on very short notice and we're really glad that we were able to get away for a couple of days.

This is the Corona Arch hike that we love to hike. Above is the "Lizard Arch" or so it's affectionately referred to as. Last year we came across it and James took a picture with his hand through it, so naturally I had to do the same.

I love Cacti in bloom. We evidently missed the blooming season this year, because we only saw this one. Turned out to be quite pretty.

I want to go to Mars!

2009-04-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

First Day of Spring

2009-03-24T07:07:00.001-07:00

It's Spring! The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the flowerbeds have little flowers peering through their soily domains. The weeds are even turning to life! So we decided that it was time to get the deck chairs our and enjoy a nice meal outside. We prefaced our meal with a refreshing walk at the park. We felt like they were fitting activities for the welcoming of the new season. Well that was a few days ago because after our warm refreshing day - it snowed. There's snow on the ground at our house still. We're happy for the moisture - because the more water there is, the better the water skiing will be, but we miss spring already. Oh well, you know what they say about the weather in Utah - if you don't like it, wait an hour.

Top 'O the Mornin to ya!

2009-03-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

Luck 'O the Irish to ya too! Since today is St Patrick's Day I wanted to wish you all a very green day! Last night I wanted to use some left over ham, and some eggs and ham sounded good. But, on a week like this, it's not complete without about 12 drops of green food coloring from Colette! So I took a picture - it was tasty!

I also wanted to show my Irish heritage since it merits the fact that I'm wearing a brilliant green St Patrick's Day shirt complete with a hat that has a 3-leaf clover on it.

My Mother's Mother was Doris Isabel O'Brien, daughter of Edmond Joseph O'Brien Jr and Julia Isabel Dunleavy, both 100% Irish. So I inherit (along with my siblings and cousins) a full 1/4 Irish blood. Then on my father's side I have my Father's Mother was Brooksie Jean, daughter to Loula B Bard, daughter of Eva Loula Fitzgerald who had some Irish in her (not sure how much). So even though I'm like 3/8th German, I'm also 5/16 Irish. So to honor my Irish heritage I'm wearing a brilliant green St Patrick's Day shirt complete with a hat that has a 3-leaf clover on it (and I ate GREEN eggs and ham for dinner last night)!!!

Sunday Dinner

2009-03-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

March has become the month of the castle cake! We had a great time at Mom's house. One of the cakes is a traditional pink cake - complete with spray painted pink towers and the other is a browning cake! Both were excellent! Yes I had to try both of them.
We had a potato bar that was very delicious. We carried on like we normally do. Sarah and Neil just returned from their adventures across the country and we enjoyed their stories and their pictures of their trek.
Here's a couple of the castle cake pictures. I understand that Mom made them and started decorating the brownie one. After she got tired of frosting it, David helped out and finished it up. They look very cool!

My Sunset

2009-03-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

I know that I think that it's my sunset even though everyone saw it just the same - but I took a picture of it. This is from my front porch a couple of days ago. I love the view of the valley from my house.

Winter Wonderland

2009-03-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

We went up to the Wright cabin over the weekend and had a fabulous time accompanied by perfect weather. I (re)hurt my back last week and with the comfort of heavy pain medicine managed to sit on the couch most of the weekend. I did sit out for most of the outdoor fun, but did manage to get on the snowmobiles and have an excellent time without making my current status worse. The snow was frosty and that made it easy to snowmobile without the concern for getting stuck in several feet of snow after loosing the ever important momentum.

We had a lot of fun relaxing and enjoying family. It was a lot of fun to get a way and spend some time doing nothing but having fun. We played games and watched movies, and I napped and watched movies on my iPod while other people were out and about in the snow. Of course the cabin is never complete without a nice roaring fire to snuggle up next to.

It's Raining It's Snowing and Snowing and Snowing

2009-02-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

We've had a ton of snow in the last week. Last Monday we got pounded and we got pounded again yesterday. When I say pounded I mean that it took hours to dig out and find the pavement again. We are in a subdivision so we're low on the priority list of getting the streets plowed, so it's always fun to only make it most of the way home. I took a couple of pictures of the snow. The snow on the steps and garbage can was all new.

Neil and Sarah are plugged in!

2009-02-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make you aware that Neil and Sarah are now plugged in - they have a blog!!!

Look here

Joan is turning 60!

2009-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

We just attended a mostly surprise party for Aunt Joan who is turning 60 this week. We had some good fun watching the cake go up in smoke with 60 candles on it though! I'm pretty sure that the pictures tell the story pretty well. I think that the bottom line is that you should just buy the wax number candles and throw a "6" and a "0" on there - but this as you can see is much more fun - and makes for better pictures!

She didn't ever really get to "blowing" the candles out, mostly because the table was catching on fire and the wax candles melted into a waxxy heap and the sparkler candles made a mess everywhere. Then you have the water that was thrown on it to douse the fire! In the end we all had a good laugh and Carol ended up with a singed (burnt) tablecloth.

Happy Birthday Joan!

Gun Show

2009-01-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

I went to the gun show in SLC with David, Kurtis, and Kevin. We had a good time and it was fun and crowded and we saw a bunch of cool stuff. But there was only two things in particular that were actually worth taking pictures of.
One - a gold plated 0.45 1923 Thompson (Tommy Gun) complete with a drum magazine! It was on sale for like $4,800, and it was even in a guitar case!

And Two: the parking was very tight. There's never enough parking in a place like this, so I would like to commend the driver of this Jeep Cherokee for using his resources to find a decent parking spot.

James was in Town!

2009-01-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

So my brother James was in town for a couple of weeks over the holidays. He doesn't live around here anymore. He lives far to the West. He misses the snow, and the cold weather and the smog and the icee rain. We wishes he would have to purchase a new coat because the only thing that he even possesses that holds in any amount of heat is his leather jacket. But he wakes up to the view of the Ocean and the birds and the raccoons and the deer. But he misses the gray glaze of inversion the blocks out the sun and holds in the burning smells of pollution and exhaust. I told him to breathe in and breathe out for me once he reaches fresh air. I always think that will help. Breathe James - Breathe. Enough about James - lets talk about something interesting. Haha! I'm Joking. James spent a large part of Christmas day with me and he is puctured below wearing his Jolly old St. Jim hat. Cute aint he? And what's a day off without spending time with the bretheren? And yes these two pictures were taken a week apart and yes I think that it is a perfect coincidence that he is wearing the same exact shirt.

Christmas Time

2009-01-20T09:12:00.000-08:00

I figured that it was about time that I get back to this here blog. We had an awesome Christmas. I had a few days off over the holidays and we were able to do a lot of relaxing and had a lot of fun with family.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

November 27 - we made it to both the Case's and the Techmeyer's for Thanksgiving dinner. The two were far enough apart that we could go to both, but close enough together that it pinched off the end and the beginning of them. But it worked out and we were able to spend some time with everyone.

After Dinner we had some time to relax and let our food settle, so we mostly sat around and talked and played games.

The Whole Family - Mostly

2008-11-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

While everyone was in town we stood together for a few moments and had a few snapshots taken. Here is the better of the bunch of them. A few were out of focus, and a few had half+ of us either sneezing or yawning. I think that we did pretty good for a family of this size. We had Grandma, and all of her children and spouses, and all of the grandchildren and spouses - minus one on a mission and all of the great-grandchildren except about 3(?). That's the closest that we've come to an entire group family picture in about 5 years. Thank you for your patience. You'll appreciate it in years to come.

Grandpa Nebeker

2008-11-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

We've had a somber last couple of weeks. Colette's maternal Grandfather passed away last week and his funeral was over the weekend. We'd like to thank everyone for their love and support at this time of loss.

Shayla's Comments
Heidi's Comments
Felicia's Comments

El Dia De Los Muertos

2008-11-04T06:12:00.001-08:00

Our two "Day of the Dead" parties fell on the same day and the same time this year - 100 miles apart. One was in Logan and the other was in Sandy. There was no way that we were going to entirely miss either one of them so we compromised and went to both. We left one early and got to one late. We unfortunately missed out on a lot of fun at both - but felt like we were a part of both too. Colette went as 'La Diabla' (which is Spanish for a female devil). I went as the infamous Zorro! The kids had no clue who Zorro was so I told them that he was a super hero - something that they can understand - and I was suddenly wearing a cool costume! Here is Shayla's Pictures. Jenni's Blog.

Pumpkin Time

2008-11-04T05:47:00.000-08:00

October 19th: Pumpkin Carving!

Welcome to our annual Pumpkin Carving with the Case Family. As always it was a lot of fun. We got a fun helper this year - an electric carver. Problem was that the overall process wasn't fast enough to pass it around. So everyone else was left to carving with a carving knife.

Brandon's was skeleton face. Ours was the werewolf.

Here we are, and no I am not a pumpkin guts eater. I leave that to Colette and Kyle.

The People Love Zorro

2008-10-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to be able to use my boots that Mom bought me several months ago (pretty much anything) so I decided to be.... I also got to get a really cool sword! This is at a primary Halloween Party for Lori's Ward. The picture was taken from my phone too so it's not very good - but you get the idea.

Showtime UT

2008-10-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

Saturday night (18th) Mom took David & Hollie and Jenni & Jeremy and Colette & I to enjoy an evening with a dinner and a show at Showtime Utah! For those who don't know Sarah and Neil have been helping Neil's mom, Joan Peterson (here or here) with running a dinner theater in Pleasant Grove.

We were entertained with the Sizzling Strings. It was a very fun and high paced show. More talent than you would expect from a group like that! There was also a western themed show that revolved around the performance. Sarah played the part of "Ruby" and did a fabulous job.

We had a table on what would be the front row. At one point in the show they announced that they were missing their next act - that the can-can dancers had gone awry. So they selected 4 lucky unsuspecting poor souls from the audience to fill in. Well as luck would fall - Sarah claims she didn't set us up - David was one, and so was I.... Unfortunately since the evidence is damning - I have protected the innocent by covering their faces. Actually one of the ill-fated dancer's co-workers was in attendance and this individual suggested that it might be funny to place a photo on the company intranet of one of the dancers...I'm not laughing. So if you would like an original - I will selectively pass those on.

Here's one of the string players playing Vivaldi. Sarah also had a singing part. As you already know - it was beautiful.

Here's Jenni's Story here.

Dinner at Mom's

2008-10-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday - October 12th. First of all we woke up to the song "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". This is a view from my back door looking South-East.

I have a couple of pictures to post, and we had a lot of people there. With as many people that fluctuate through living in and out of state - they all seem to be here in UT. Denni and Burke were there with their kids and Keri and Mike came too. We decided that it was probably the first time that we'd seen Keri since her wedding like 5 years ago.

We had a pasta bar at someone's suggestion. Jenni made these awesome meat balls! We had marinara and Alfredo sauce, and assorted pasta, and breadsticks. It was quite a meal. Matt didn't make it, but with that exception all of the regular in-state-ers were there.

We played a fun game. Simple but it works well with a large group. Basically - everyone sits in a circle and there are chairs for everyone +1. Then everyone writes their name on a slip of paper. You have everyone draw a name. They are now assigned a new name. (You can have your own name). Then you determine a target location. Usually the couch that holds 3 people works best. Teams are Men vs. Women. Object: get 3 men in a row at target location (for the men). Object for the Women - opposite, get 3 women in a row. How it works: sit in approximately a boy-girl-boy pattern. Target location starts with one guy and one girl with the "+1" seat on the target location. The person with the vacant seat to their right gets to take a turn. Simply - they state who they would like to have sit next to them. So they say: "I want Sarah to sit here" and whoever is now assigned the name of 'Sarah' sits there - even though it's really 'David'. Make sense? So the Goal (men) is still to get 'Mike', 'Neil', and 'David' on the couch - even though their names are 'Mom', 'Sarah', and 'James'. One more rule: the same person can't move twice in a row. So it's a game of memory. Try and get people off of the couch who you don't want there and try and get people on the couch that you want there. 3 went too fast for a group of 20 people so we upped it to 4 people on the couch. Sound fun - try it!

If it isn't broke...

2008-10-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ya know...when something is working out just fine - why change? Well I decided it was time to take one of those lunch breaks again! I shot at 25 yards today and this is 96 rounds. The Range Officer dutifully pointed out to me that I am using too much paper and that I goofed up on a couple parts of it - yeah thanks.

Our Rockin Wii Band

2008-10-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

The other day was a Rockin day and we all played into the wii hours of the morning.

1:1,000,000

2008-10-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm just sitting there minding my own business with my face glued to my monitor and suddenly out of nowhere I hear something wizz past my ear. I stared in confused amazement in front of me to realize that someone just threw a string cheese at me. In disgust I tossed it up and over my head. I turned around to see the response from the person that threw it, to find them looking all around for it. Another bystander pointed out that we could all sit and try and do that a million times and would never yield the same result. Wondering what he was talking about, we looked up.

That's What I Call a Lunch Break!

2008-10-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Normally on my lunch break I'll break out my lunch and go into our tiny lunch room and try and work my way into whatever conversation is going on and I eat my food. Or if I'm feeling anti-social then I'll nuke my lunch and head back to my desk. Well today was different!

We went to the Lee Kay Center just South of where I work. It's probably less than 5 miles.

A guy that I work with is a big gun fan - he's actually the one that David bought his shotgun from. He recently purchased a GSG-P5 and a GSG-5 and brought both of them with us. They are basically the same gun except one has a barrel muzzle and a stock. The other is just a pistol grip with a short barrel.

I think that I liked the one with the stock a bit better. They have a banana clip that holds 24 .22 rounds. He has several clips.

This is my target for one of the firing sessions. they both have a red light scope and my scope was a bit low on my first clip, so on the second I compensated for the height. We were shooting at 50 yards with no magnification.

Blue Lake Blast (pun intended)

2008-09-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

We just got back from Blue Lake, Utah, which is just on the border of Utah/Nevada about 20 miles south of Wendover. It's a desolate place with one redeeming factor. It has a 60 foot deep geothermal heated lake. Now you ask why that is a redeeming factor to anyone? Well to Scuba Divers who happen to live in such a dry place as Utah - a 'year-round' lake is a dream. Ok, it's not a dream, but it's the best we got. It maintains a temperature of about 70 degrees on the surface and gets warmer the deeper you get.

David, Kurtis, and Me (Mike) went out there with the compliments to James for the use of his SUV. We towed David's tent trailer out there (we took mine last year and fagged out the suspension which resulted in a new axle). Well you would think that with 3 guys out in a desolate spit of earth you would get pretty bored pretty fast - well lucky for us we anticipated this and brought our own entertainment! What a Blast!

I think that we counted 15 guns between the three of us. We each needed a shotgun, each needed a minimum of two pistols, each needed at least one .22 rifle (cheap ammo), and we each needed a high powered rifle. So you do the math. Now sadly, not every gun that we brought was shot, but you have got to be prepared for anything. I also think we had somewhere in excess of 2000 rounds of various ammo - not counting .22's.

We have accumulated more and better 'stuff' over the years, and between the three of us we only had like 4 GPS's, 6 cameras (2 water), 2 video cameras, and 3 iPod's, etc etc etc.

Kurtis bought this M44 .30 a couple of weeks ago and it is a Russian Surplus gun from WWII - complete with Bayonet. I am here to attest that it shoots very straight and very accurate and it is very very powerful. I will demonstrate with a few pictures below.

David built this cool little swinging target to shoot at A while back. If you get it dead on, then it swings around 360 degrees - pretty cool. Well If you shoot it with an M44 it barely moves. The pressure does not go into it, no no no - the pressure goes through it! You're looking at 1/2 inch solid steel with a smaller piece welded on the back. BLAST! Yeah!

This is my attack - nice exit wound.

I brought James' .223 Carbine along and had a good time with it. We found a 6-pack up there and decided to dispose of it. If you look closely, the entry point is just below the "L". The exit point is the rest of the bottle! BLAST! Thought that it was a cool picture.

Then we moved on to shotgunning. We had a fun time (blast) with that too. This actually was the shortest of our gunning activities. The Beer Bottles were the funnest. The liquid (beer) filled bottles exploded on impact sending shrapnel everywhere. Oh the picture above was with a bottle that was emptied before we shot at it - I mean before we found it....

Then it was back to shooting at the target and I drew my 9mm and started shooting away - shooting the target away that is. Yeah I shot right on the weld and blew the target right off! You can see my M44 holes clean through, with a shot indentation on the very top rim - that was the final blow! BLAST!

Then after the lights went out - it was time for a small conservative fire and a couple of mild fireworks. HAH! If you believe we're going to follow typical campground rules in the middle of the desert - then you do NOT know us. To get a feel for the size of the fire, the box looking thing in the center of the fire is a dresser with the drawers strewn through there somewhere. Se found a sheet of plywood and a bunch of 4x4 posts and other crap there in the lot that we contributed to our light show of blaze! Blast!

We had an awesome time and the biggest draw back - other than the fact that all of us weren't there, was the **expletive** Horse Flies! Holy **colorful metaphor** !!! My body is freckled with red marks from **expletive** Horse Flies and mosquitoes. We decided that the moderate weather is not worth the trade off of having **you know what** Horse Flies. So we'll push this back into October - and hopefully it will be less buggy!

Diving Update: Nice water! 15' visibility or so. Calm silt. Dove Friday a.m. and early p.m. We beat the crowd - literally (The Dive Shop from Bountiful was there). Found "The Stop Sign", Horizontal, and Vertical boats, Parking Meter, floating Dummy Head, Golf Clubs, the Sea Turtle, some very active Hot Pots, and lots of Fish.

I bought a brand new Mask from Adventure Scuba in South Ogden. Coolest mask that I have ever seen! It worked perfectly. It is big and allows for peripheral vision and has a nose purge. We also rented our tanks from them. They are a very nice dive shop. They are the Dive Shop that we went to Flaming Gorge with in July.

Finally here we are enjoying the stars while laying on the dock.

Still Waterskiing in September

2008-09-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we decided that our waterskiing days were numbered and Tuesday was one of them. So we packed up with the Coombs and hit the dam.

Here are the girls - doing what they do best! They make it look so simple.

The water was refreshing, but not too cold yet - it's getting pretty close to wet suit weather though. I've been an avid boater/water enthusiast since we got married. I have never been an accomplished waterskier though. I attribute that to whatever. It took me a while with the knee board mostly because I needed a board big enough to drag my long gangly body up onto. Well here I am - clearly on one ski. That is pretty freeking awesome! I've only done it once before.

Here is Kyle caught in an interesting dilemma. What goes up, must come down - only problem is, he's going in face first....

Upcoming Scuba trip.

2008-09-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

For those who may not understand why we dive or even for those who haven't been diving in a while, this one's for you.

Michael, David and Kurtis are going to go to Blue Lake to shoot and to dive. If you want to know where it is Michael will have all the details from his GPS after they return. I merely wanted to show you a few shots I got off of my camera from last years adventure.

These images were taken while at our diving trip last year at Blue Lake. It has it's own wonders to behold for those willing to journey to that remote little paradise.

I did have a fun little video but it wouldn't upload so I decided to go for a couple of pictures instead. These don't quite show you the fun we were having by setting off fireworks and such but you can clearly see we did have fun and also found a bit of time to relax as well.

It was a nice night and a good trip. We had had the buffet in Wendover that night if memory serves. I drove my Durango and pulled Mike's tent trailer. It was quite the slick set up. We fit quite comfortably I believe. I was comfortable. I had plenty of space but being the driver I get that! Not a bad way to go. We also had some firearms that aided in the entertainment value.

I do enjoy Blue Lake. Not a bad spot to have some fun.

-James

Dinner at Mom's

2008-09-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our first "dinner at Mom's" since about June. July we bagged it since we were all camping together, and August was canned since everyone was busy. Well Nothing was going to stop September from having a dinner at Mom's. Jenni came up with the idea - I give kudos to her, we had Navajo Tacos and along with it we had scones. They were good. Don't know what else to say about that.

Travis and Grace and Chad and Heather each brought their child with them and they were able to come. Sybil was there too minus her hunting half - who was gone hunting. And I understand that as of Monday morning Daryl 'got' his Elk! So don't think for a second though that we're going to be seeing more of him now that he's 'got' his Elk, because he aint done yet.

There wasn't any special activities going on, just chatting and laughing and having good old friendship building conversations....

There are tentative plans for any interested - Sybil etc, is going to hike Mt. Timpanogos (the Caves up the canyon) on Saturday morning. Call Sybil or Grace for Details.

I don't think that I had many flattering pictures taken tonight - except of Hollie, and Travis - but James and Becky and Mindy etc are interested in seeing what we looked like - so I just take them as I see them. Sorry - smile next time! It's not like I'm going to not put pictures just because you didn't smile!

We Ran Another Race

2008-09-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

We ran in the Layton Classic 5k on Saturday. Carl and his sister also came and walked the 2 mile walk. It was a good race. It wasn't my best time, but I was there for the physical expenditure more than anything - and we got a really nice yellow shirt! We only started back up running about 10 days ago or so, but we were happy in the end.

Since we were running for our heart - they had dougnuts for us at the end. HaHa I just had to laugh at the irony. I was drained of energy and the muffin and PowerAid at the end really helped.

We also ran into Ashley and JJ who ran it while pushing a stroller - tough! And we also saw one of Colette's HS friends - Emma and Brent.

Labor Day Camp Trip

2008-09-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

We ended up going to our Ward's camp out on the Friday of Labor Day Weekend - and since that was the highlight of our weekend - I thought that I would add a few pictures and comments.

Mom was on her way out of town to go to Idaho - as was David and Hollie as I recall. On the other side of the family - everyone was either going camping or doing major weekend projects, so we decided that we would participate in our annual ward camp out. We took the 4-wheeler and had a good time riding. We rode up a road just North of Liberty, UT. We didn't see much more than cows, but it sure was pretty.

Mike's Birthday Weekend - Part III

2008-09-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

I finally got it. Here it is:

Mindy was in UT (with a cool car)!

2008-08-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Mindy was in UT this week - and she's obviously not the type that will settle for a beige Chevy Malibu - oh no - she's the convertible Mustang type. I had lunch with her yesterday so I decided that I would snap a picture of the car she's sporting around in. I'm blue with envy.

Another Weekend - Another Adventure

2008-08-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Another work-less Friday came and after great consideration on what to do - we decided that it was time for water skiing! We went to Pineview Reservoir "the dam". Once again - I have a GPS map of our wanderings around the lake! I really love my new toy. The flag in the upper right is where we started water skiing and the dock is on the middle left - so that is the start and end points.

We spent most of the day there, and as you can see, spent most of the time in the same channel. We went over by the dam and David and I jumped of the boat in view of the shooting camera repeatedly until we drifted back into the main channel.

It was a bit choppy so we went and played on the beach for a while before trying to beat the sun to a bit more skiing time.

I'm sure you can gather who went by the pictures...speaking of pictures - Hollie has all of the good pictures on her camera! These ones are just pictures that I took while we were playing in the water over by the beach. So I'll have to post an update when I get them.

Mike's Birthday Weekend - Part II

2008-08-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday - my birthday - we went up to Park City and I wanted to ride the Alpine Slide since I've never done it before. I was also given the recommendation to ride the Zip Line. So we got up there and had a quick lunch before going up to the mountain.

We got in line and rode the ski lift up the mountain. And - according to my GPS - we were at about 7,542 feet in elevation and we started our little windy trip down the mountain at about 2:30:15.

At the top, the ticket lady took our picture for us. We started down the hill. If you look at the satallite view - we rode down on the left track. We reached a maximum speed of 15 mph and averaged about 12 mph. The bottom came in at about 7,034 feet in elevation and I stopped moving at 2:33:57. So it lasted about 3.5 minutes and we dropped around 500 feet.

As I was going down I took a blind over my shoulder picture and got Colette in the picture!

Then we went back for the "ZipRider". I took my video but I haven't had the chance to grab the video off of it yet. So the best that I'll be able to do is give an "artist's rendition" so to speak. I think that my version gives you a better feel for the thrill and excitement of the whole thing. So look for a birthday part III post some time soon.

We got in line for the ski lift at about 2:40 and after a long wait - finally at 4:05:07 after being strapped into our harness at 7556 feet we were released through the gate. We reached a maximum speed of 48 mph and had an average speed of 40 mph. After an exhillarating ride we hit the end at 4:06:01 and landed at 7065 feet.

Mike's Birthday Weekend - Part I

2008-08-19T11:25:00.001-07:00

If you haven't noticed by now (then you obviously haven't been reading this blog much) - I'm on a 3-day weekend schedule - and loving it. Since it was my birthday weekend we decided to make the most of it. So Friday we drove up to Bear Lake and rented us a WaveRunner! We could have taken the boat and the truck - but decided that the rental vs. the gas expense on top of the heart ache from towing etc was an equivalent cost. And it was different and sounded fun and it was my birthday. We rented it from the State Park Marina and we set up a beach camp that we didn't spend much time at.

I took the GPS and our camera along for the ride and snapped a couple of pictures and the fun with the GPS came later when we downloaded our path that it traced. The water was a little lower than normal based on our camp coordinates compared to the water level drawn on the map.

The water was probably 75 degrees and it was clear and beautiful! We had the WaveRunner for about 4 hours and had a ton of fun! The beach was crowded but we didn't let that bother us.

MemoryTech

2008-08-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have un-officially traded services for financial compensation and have called myself MemoryTech. I threw a few ideas off the wall and other people and that's what I decided that I liked for a name. Colette's Great-Aunt Myrtle passed away and her family asked me to make a Memorial Video in celebration of her life. Since this is something that I do - it was no problem. They asked me to bring my card, because there were some in attendance who would like the similiar kind of work done. So I came up with a name to make myself look less home-made-ish. Still home-made none the less.

So I was going to put the money towards my new computer - but a greater need arose - I bought myself a GPS. It's a portable Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. I find myself off of the beaten path quite often between owning a 4-wheeler, Jeep, and a boat in combination to all of the hiking, camping, and exploring one like me enjoys. Although I've never been "lost" I have always wanted one. So you might find future posts that include a coordinate for handy locating purposes.

Demolition Derby

2008-08-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

August 9th proved to be quite fun with a trip to the Weber County Fair Demolition Derby. We tried to get a group together but they said they didn't enjoy watching cars crash into each other to the death. "...To the death! No! To the pain! I don't think I'm quite familiar with that phrase? I'll explain, and I'll use small words so that you'll be sure to understand - You warthog-faced-buffoon!..." Sorry, I couldn't stop myself.

Here is us! Cute! Here is a couple of short clips to get an idea of the entertainment that we got. I figure that $10 a person is well worth the entertainment value that you get out of a show like this.

No Comment Necessary

2008-08-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. (8/1/08)

Scuba Diving at Flaming Gorge

2008-08-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

July 26: I know, I know... for anyone who's a scuba diver AND been to Flaming Gorge, you may wonder if that is if fact an oxymoron, but yes I did indeed dive at the gorge. It was...well you know, Jeremy may be right - let me explain - I may be becoming a bit spoiled when it comes to Scuba Diving. So let me get back to what it was before I get to what it wasn't. It was cold, it was rocky, it was muddy, and it was...did I say cold yet? So I have been in some of the best (arguably) Scuba Diving waters in the world - including Disney World - and I've dove in the Caribbean as late as January, so this being my very next dive, it wasn't a comparison. Yes, I was able to don my gear and enjoy what could be called Self-Contained Underwater Breathing for a subtotal of about 90 minutes, but there just wasn't anything interesting there. So my official report is that I would love to go back to the gorge and do some more water skiing or maybe even camping again - farther South though - but I doubt that I will even be able to make another blog entry with the same title. I didn't take my underwater camera with me this time, and it's just as well, I wouldn't have taken much of any pictures anyway.

The water was very refreshing at about 70 degrees with the 100+ temp. We didn't go below about 30 feet. And at 30 feet it was about 60 degree water. We wore a full 7mm wet suit with gloves and hoodies where available (I didn't have one and my ears were very numb). Here is the Utah Diving perspective of Flaming Gorge.

The first picture is me and Steve - who is a Dive Instructor all geared up and ready to dive. Here is a self portrait through the boats rear view mirror - that is Chris (captain) and Colette on the left.

I managed to get in a few minutes of skiing on the way back to camp.

Here's another one with me and Chris.

New Look and Feel

2008-08-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

What do you think? Colette's sister led me to a site that let's you add cute little stuff like this background, so I decided I would try it out and see what I thought. Not bad, a little busy. What do you think?

The Camping Trip

2008-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

July 17-20 The Utah conglomerate of the family headed to North-Eastern Utah just inside the Utah border to Stateline Reservoir. We did have a couple of problems over the course of the weekend that might have included tent poles, trailer ball, rain threat at 4:00 a.m. (involved a gun), and millions of flying insects. Alth ough James offered an interesting rendition that's not really how it happened.

We all made it there just fine, and contrary to original belief the Wright's tent poles made it too. You see when you have a big van and a trailer and several kids and food and gear for a week in the wilderness, details like 'where the poles are' are hard to remember. So as the inevitable dread of having no tent, we helped them set up their screen tent. It's a very spacious and nice screen tent - it does lack some privacy though. It also went through a wind burst last year and needed some TLC if you know what I mean (and if you don't it means - Tender Loving Care - you know?...Fragile...?). So as soon as we got the screen tent up held together literally with duct tape, yes you guessed it - the tent poles were found. But too late - the screen tent was staying.

We tried to get in a fair amount of relaxing. The water was cold and a couple of brave souls did actually get in the water and after you overcome the cold factor in about 20 seconds, the water was a lot of fun.

We did see a bit of sun too. I was wearing a bandanna the first day and got a line across my forehead - I had to wear a hat to work the next few days to cover my "tan line". And no, I was not the only one to get burnt. I had it pretty ease actually compared to a couple of other sun worshipers. Here is also a non-formal group picture.

Oh yes - you want the rest of the stories....

more 3-day weekend fun!

2008-08-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

We hadn't been out on the 4-wheeler for a while so we decided to go up Farmington Canyon, and we ended going All the way up the canyon. I also didn't bring the tripod, so as you can guess, they are self-portraits, one of the tower and one of the valley view below. I don't think I was smiling.

more 4-day work week + Summer =

2008-08-06T09:25:00.001-07:00

2. Go on a trip. aka Go on vacation, go somewhere fun, stay in a hotel, do something unique to the area that you are going, road trip, eat out for every meal. This trip took us to St. George to see Grandma's sister who was about to cross over. Actually we were there over the 4th of July weekend and she passed away on July 10th, so the timing was right on. I went with 5 women and a little girl. That equates to a LOT of patience when it comes to getting ready.... (insert women joke here) We had a lot of fun. It was hot as Hades though. You had to either be in the pool, or taking a shower, or in some state of undress to be somewhat comfortable. The scale was tipping 110 degrees. Way too hot for me. Here's a couple pictures.

I don't think it's possible to smile while taking a self-photo. And one possible side-effect with a water proof camera is that it can make your nose look really big.

We went to Tuacahn on the 4th of July and saw the Sound of Music and they had a nice little fireworks show after that was really pretty cool, because the pops of the fireworks bounced off of all the canyon walls around and around. Good show too! "...The Hills are alive..." You know how it goes, come on sing along "...with the Sound of Music...Ah ah ah Aaaahhhhhh..."

4-day work week + Summer =

2008-08-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may know, I have been working a 4-day work week this summer and that has translated into a lot of fun. So here is some of it.

1. To go Boating. aka water skiing aka sitting on the beach aka laying in the sun aka relaxing with your feet up and a drink in your hand. I recommend it. We've mostly gone with Kyle and Shayla this summer.

Self group photo - took a couple of tries, but we got all of us in.

June Weekend at the Cabin

2008-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at some old pictures from earlier in the summer, and I realized after looking at David's pictures that I am the only one that has any pictures of the boys with guns at the cabin. So I figured that I would add some - because you know what goes well with a group of guys in the great out doors right? Guns! - there were some other things going on too, including 4-wheelers, but I wasn't there long enough to do much else.

How does one tend a whole herd of kids? (Sorry for calling your kids a herd - but what word would you use, a flock, a drove, a crowd, a pack....?) Anyway - I found a way to spend an hour of the kids' afternoon.
And - notice the orange blur in front of Jeremy? That is in fact the clay pigeon that he is throwing and ironically the same thing that David is shooting at. He wasn't aiming for it just yet as you can see. Don't forget - safety first! I think that is an awesome picture if I do say so myself (there is more self praise forthcoming...).

Remember that self praise that I mentioned - well in Jeremy's picture here - that is in fact the 9mm shell ejecting out of my Ruger P89 9mm w/Custom Grip! I think that ejecting shell pictures are cool. James would definately agree with me.

I only have one thing to say about my picture - "You're empty mister!" (name that movie, here's another clue...)

I gave Z the chance to smile - "but he wasn't having any" (another quote from the same movie). He did manage to throw up the peace sign though - which is sort of ironic since we were blowing s--- stuff up at the moment! Don't think that he just sat there the whole time either, he was only sitting down because he was wore out from shooting.

Part of my initial gun enthusiasm came from an English Professor that I had up at Weber State University. So this picture is for all of those individuals (from...OK State, or otherwise) that don't think that your professor would ever be out shooting guns. You can't always judge a gun carrier by their profession. Never judge too quickly. I know of former Bank (sorry Credit Union) employees that own more guns that I do.

Anyway this was basically an impromptu trip up to the cabin and some people stayed several nights and apparently they had a raging bon fire that was catching the wet green grass near on fire because of it's sheer ferocity. Mom also fell out of her chair and there were screaming cameras before there was ever a helping hand. I think there might have even been a picture of the kids - other than the time that they were corralled in a moving trailer.

As always - if you would like an original photo - just ask - and it's yours.

Vacation time is always a good time.

2008-07-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here we go on the ol' homestead page. Since the fan damly was off having a good vacation I figured I would go ahead and make a post about it. Please be aware that the following are facts according to my observation.
The trip was a great one without to many hickups. There were a few things that will make this trip unique amoung so many. For Jen and Jer it was great. Their kids were so used to being scattered about that they just hung with the cousins. The Wright parents managed to steal one of Michael and Colette's many large colorful umbrellas and pimp chill under it most of the time. Their feat was never contested due to the fact that they hadn't had time to clean their clothes since their succesful trip to Georgia. It's a good thing that David and Hollie had a boat strapped on their new tent trailer because the freeway started to fill up from the rainstorm while driving down the freeway and the boat kept the trailer afloat. Since there weren't many places to sit Mom kept sitting on the 4-wheelers which Neil gladly reved up and took off doing wheelies with Mom still on it. I'm sure you can't wait for the video on that one. All in all a really good trip for those who could make it.
Thanks for reading the Techmeyer Family Blog! We'll keep you posted! =D

Let the Chinese Begin!

2008-07-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

I just talked with James and he is still alive. Since he's been in Monerey he said that he's been on sweeping detail. Which means that we walks up and down the sidewalk and sweeps it. Goes to lunch, then goes back to sweeping. Many of the folks sent down there have some major lag time from the time that they arrive until the time that class starts. So they get a lot of detail time. James fortunately starts class today, so he's done with his sweep detail.

He also said that he expects to be able to move to 'phase 2' next week, which means that he'll be able to leave the base. He'll still have to be in uniform - so no water activities - but he can explore beyond his bedroom.

He said that he officially starts class today at 12:30!

James is now Airman Techmeyer!

2008-07-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

James officially has a rank now! Dad and Linda went down to San Antonio, TX to participate in the graduation event. I don't know much of the details, except that it looked hot and windy. he graduated on Friday the 27th of June. On Thursday at about 11:00 they had a ceremony where they received their Airmen Coins and became Airmen, then on to the festivities on Friday. He had Friday afternoon to himself, and spent it seeing the sights of San Antonio with Dad and Linda.

Here are some pictures and a video clip from Dad and Linda.

I put a dot under James to help identify him

Close up of his flight, and an SR-71

James in front of a B-17

James at Steve's house.

Here is a video clip of his graduation with James in it.

UPDATE: James is now in Monterey California. He is living in a 2 person dormitory type room with a microwave and a mini fridge. The bathroom is down the hall. He has little/no phone/email access. He has expressed that he will keep people updated as often as he can.

Deck - Before and After

2008-06-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add a couple of more picture to give you a better view of the before and current status of my deck. I've been having fun doing it. I've hit a snag on my progress and hope to get back to it.

The first one below was taken on May 4th, the next one was taken on May 31st. I have since finished the decking.

Curses

2008-06-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

Now that most of the family has got a taste for how Curses works, here's a video of James' attempt to fulfill several Curses at once.

My deck project

2008-05-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to building my deck. We decided about 8 months ago that we were ready to buy a new house. BUT, with the market the way it is, we decided to stay. But if we are going to stay we wanted a few things to be different. In order of priority: 1- fix the yard so that we can use it. 2- build a deck. 3- get a hot tub and put it on the deck. 4- build a shed. So I did (1) and now I am working on (2) and I am anxiously awaiting (3). (4) might not come until next Spring. We'll see. Here is a description of our yard before. House then 10 feet of well groomed and watered grass then a 3 foot rock wall, then a sloping mountain of dirt and weeds. The rock wall is about 45' long then on the South side of the yard there is a steep slope that goes up at about a 40 degree angle for about 15'. Then the yard slopes upward and finally levels at the back of our yard. It was almost impossible to push a lawn mower up that hill, so it's gone. Here is what it looks like now.

UPDATE: 6/17 - I now have all of the decking on the deck, and I now have the stairs on and they are mostly done. However each board only has like 5 screws in each board, and needs somewhere around 20. So at those numbers I have like 4-500 screws left to put it. I still have to put some bracing on my support pillars and so on. Then as soon as I get to that point I can worry about putting rails up. I also have a set of steps from the left side of the deck down to the grass which is about 22 inches, and I figured that would be a tall step without stairs there - since the other stairs are like 8 inches. Still have a ways to go, but I am pressing onward!

More about James in BMT

2008-05-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

I've personally talked to James since arriving in TX, and since arriving at BMT (I'm working on my military acronyms - Basic Military Training). If you could like his address, I am happy to pass it on to you. Please contact me at webmaster@techmeyer.com

Also see Jenni's comments here.

Air Force Basic Training

2008-05-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

As I write this, somewhere in Texas James is likely getting set for a brand new wardrobe - for free. If you don't count the six-year commitment that goes with it.
As all of us might be interested in what's going on in the life of Techmeyer (previously known as James), I found a bit of reading material. This article is fairly detailed, so they split it into four 5-page articles.
I found it a good read. Enjoy: Air Force Basic Training
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforcejoin/a/afbmt1.htm

Weekend in Moab

2008-05-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

We left a bit later in the week than the rest of the group but made it fine. It was snowing when we left Salt Lake. This trip was a bit unconventional as we were split in two different groups in different locations about 30 miles apart.

We took the 4-wheeler and played around a bit on that. Ended up going on the Kane Creek Trail. We also got some hiking in. Saturday the 26th was the car show and we spent about an hour there before going up to a watering hole up Mill Creek Canyon.

Then on the way out everyone went and hiked Corona Arch and we proceeded out to Dead Horse Point while everyone else went home.

So I guess that's the short of the long. We had a lot of fun. The weather cooperated, but it was still cold at night, so we had to turn on the heater. We were in a campground with power and water, so we brought the microwave and had popcorn and watched movies. Nice kind of camping!

NOTE: This commentary is only one perspective. I know that a lot of fun was had, and we weren't always there. This is just through the eyes of my camera.

FSO exam results

2008-04-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

Clinton just got confirmation that he passed the written portion of the State Department Foreign Services Officer exam. YIPPEEEE

So on to the next step. His application and personal interest statements and references will all be reviewed, along with his FSO score. In about 12 weeks we'll find out whether he will be invited to the oral exam. So watch for another post some time in late July.

Ward Talent Show!

2008-04-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday night the 19th of April, our ward had a talent show. Since Colette is the Activities Committee Chairperson, she was rounding up the local talent and found someone who needed a drummer. Well she just happened to know someone who had played the drums before. So if it will work - here is a couple videos of the music we played. And in the first video - if you can't tell - the thing that I hold up is 'sunglasses'.

The first song that we played was called ’The Stinky Cheese Man' written by our guitar player's friend. It's based on a kid's book that is a takeoff from the Gingerbread Man. On the Guitar is Seth McKenzie, Piano is David Stone (served a mission in Japan, and we were in the MTC together, and were in Japanese classes together at Weber), and finally the Drums is yours truly.

The second one is by Peter Paul and Mary called I Dig Rock and Roll Music. The Melody was played by Diana, Seth’s wife.

I hope this will work for everyone. We had a blast doing this. Just so that you know - I played with the guitar player twice, and the piano and flute just once before the day of the performance.

Sunday Dinnner at Mom's

2008-04-17T13:25:00.001-07:00

I'd like to say that I would update this with pictures every month so the folks in VA, OK, MO, and soon TX/CA could feel a part of things, but no promises. However - unofficially - I am going to bring my laptop with my web cam and set it up at Mom's when we come each month and you all - if you would like - can chat, interact, or just watch as things go on. Thought it might be a fun way to interact with everyone. It may encourage everyone to use their web cams more too.

Well we had soup and salads. ~~Nothing Special~~. **It was excellent and very tasty! Mom made potato soup, and we had bread sticks, and pasta, caramel apple, and jello salads.** Everyone in state was there. Matt got a job in Alaska and leaves in about a week. He'll be near Anchorage - so way up there. Travis got a permanent solid career job with the Federal Airline People doing Radar stuff. Sorry for my lack of specific details. He'll be going to OK for 6 weeks or so for training. Then he'll be back in UT.

Here is a couple pictures from Sunday. We celebrated birthdays for David, Travis and Becky.

We also played Bang! which is a lot of fun. Even Jenni played! Sarah was the Sheriff, and alas the Sheriff did not prevail. This will only make sense if you know the rules of the game. Favorite move of the game: Jenni's power was that she could use any number of bang cards on her turn, my power was a 'General Store' every turn, so I gave every person a card of my choice. Well I gave Jenni a gun that allowed her to use any number of bang cards on her turn. Ha ha - very useless card - LOL - I just died from laughing. She didn't think it was funny.

What a way to start your weekend!

2008-04-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Friday 4/11/2008 - about 3:25 p.m.
I'm just leaving work excited about the weekend and I get about 100 yards from work and this car pulls right in front of me, and there was an unavoidable collision. I was driving straight down the road and she pulled onto the roadway turning left in front of me. You be the judge. Well here are a couple of pictures of what my now dismal car looks like. FYI - at the time of collision, we were going slow enough that neither of our airbags deployed - with a head on collision.

Front, passenger side. Skid marks from my car. (Her on the right)

Another angle. No fun.

Deck Project

2008-04-17T12:59:00.001-07:00

I have committed much of my spare time lately to the Case's Deck project. We stripped the surface boards off of the old deck, doubled the support, added a 16' beam, extended the deck another 12 x 8 feet and resurfaced it with Trex Decking, and are now in the finishing stages. Since I've mentioned it to about everyone and I'll be doing my own deck before too long, figured I'd add a few pictures to show our progress.

The first picture is us enjoying being able to sit on the new deck and relax. This is Kyle, my partner in crime. Although all credit can't go to Kyle, most of it does for this project. The second picture is a level sitting on the new 16 foot support beam, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I take pride in this kind of stuff.

Here is a picture of the extension on, and then finally a glimpse of what it will look like when we're finished.

We Ran Another Race

2008-04-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

March 29, 2008
We ran in the Goldenwest Credit Union 5k for local schools. Race Info They had thousands of people running/walking and they quit recording time after 22 minutes, and no that is not something that I ever could hope to do - run 3.1 miles in less than 22 minutes. I ran it in about 30 minutes. Colette ran as well as Brandon K., my bro-in-law who now works at Goldenwest Credit Union as their telecommunications (phone) guy. It was threatening to snow and rain on us, and the forecast called for the storm starting at like midnight, the night before. Well the race started at 8:30 and the first wave of fury from the storm struck right about 9:15. So luckily we were in our car waiting to go home by the time the hail and snow started. It was a good little race there in So. Ogden.

Guess what Techmeyers. . .

2008-04-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Guess who is blogging. . . that's right. Me! Check me out http://jamestechmeyer.blogspot.com/

Mindy and Clinton Visit Utah

2008-03-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

For more details, visit our blog.

New Featured Website

2008-03-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Our blog would like to feature a web site JWD Licensing. Check it out:

JWD Licensing

Central US Update

2008-03-04T12:24:00.001-08:00

We had a ball of a time! We didn't have very pleasant weather when we were in St. Louis so we didn't have a chance to see much in the area. We had a great time with Dad and Linda. We had an adventure moving a cast iron tub out into the woods to bury. We ate some excellent food and played some fun games!

We headed west and went to Oklahoma. We were greeted there with open arms as well! We spent the evening and again were served with some excellent food and had some fun playing games with the Topham family!

Our drive West from there was very uneventful, with the exception of stopping to switch drivers. And for the official record, Kansas is a very very very very very (get the picture that it's very...) long and boring. Not much there. Definitely no points of interest, that we were interested in.

The drive was a bit too long, about 18 hours. That's a very long time to be confined in a mini van!

The Boys head EAST!

2008-02-20T06:51:00.000-08:00

On about the middleth of January Dad bought himself a new Jeep. I believe it is a...never mind I have no idea what year it is. Of course he has been driving his mini-van that is no longer needed now that he has a cool Jeep Wrangler! here it is.

So David has made a recent addition to his family and would now like to reluctantly submit himself to the stereotypical family-man mini-van owner. So in order to get the van he is flying out to MO and picking it up and driving it home. Seeing that the drive is going to be too much for just one person and as his brothers we couldn't submit Hollie to that sort of strain; James, Kurtis and me (Mike) are flying to MO with him to help with the cross country effort.

We figured that since we would only be a couple hundred miles away from Becky and family that we would make our way home through OK. We're anxious to make a stop in Stillwater and see the family. I have made it to Stillwater before, but it was only for about 6 hours, and I spent a good portion of that time sleeping.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to explain our stories and adventures after we get back!

Mike's Christmas Lights

2007-12-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a snapshot of our house all lit up with Christmas lights!

Halloween Preview

2007-10-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

This is a preview of...Spiderman!!!

Blue Lake Bonanza!!!

2007-10-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

This year, October 19th and 20th was the Blue Lake Bonanza that started out much better than it ended. (How's that for foreshadowing?) We basically left at high noon and headed for the west desert. James took David and Kurtis and Myself in his Durango and we took my tent trailer along with us. We arrived at the lake without any incident and got set up within a few minutes. The tent trailer is pretty easy to set up. We got the shade and the insect tent up in no time and before we knew it we were getting ready to dive.

Brady and Becky Tew came with us also (Becky is Hollie's sister). So Kurtis took some pictures and chilled on the dock while the 5 of us went down together. It took a while for us to all equalize and get down, but by the time we did we were ready for some fun. Now the problem that I was having with the whole thing was that Brady, Becky and James all rented their gear from the same dive shop, so they all looked exactly the same in about 50 feet of mucky brown silty water. So that posed some identification problems. We had a lot of fun and took a role of pictures, so hopefully they will turn out well.

After we were done diving, we figured it was high time we blew something up, so we got out the shotguns and started blasting away at clay pigeons. We had a blast! Ha ha pun intended.

After we went into town for dinner, we built a raging fire that was fed by the force of a very sturdy and consistent wind. Throw in some fireworks and some mountain dew, take into consideration that we are in the middle of the *** desert with no one around for about 20 miles, and that is a perfect recipe for a lot of fun. Which is exactly what we did.

Well we had a good night sleep and then the morning came. Remember that foreshadowing that I mentioned a bit ago, well here it comes. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees in a matter of what felt like moments, and the ever present force of the sturdy and consistent wind started to bring precipitation. With a brief glance off into the western sky, our immediate future was described all too clearly. We figured we had about 15 minutes until the full force of the raging storm would be upon us, and there was no end in sight. So we scrambled to get everything packed back up before the torrential rain hit. Our guess wasn't far off, but we did get packed up pretty quick. So the day was cut short by the storm, as we decided that this wasn't the best time to dive or shoot. The drive home proved to be tedious, as we were following the storm as we drove East, so the long rode got stretched out by the limitation of about 55 miles per hour.

October 14th - Party @ Mom's

2007-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

We decided to do something a bit different with the meal this time. We had a pasta bar. Jen made some awesome meatballs, and people brought pasta and sauces and David made bread sticks. There was a lot of good food. I apparently didn't take many pictures, as these were the best depiction of the entire day. Oh, and Sarah had a way cute skirt on!

Late Night w/ the Boys

2007-10-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it was very late into the wee hours of the morning on the night of October 6th - did that make sense? Well James was dozing, no actually he passed completely out. David and I thought that we would have some fun. So here is James before, during and at completion of our additions to James' slumber, just before we woke him up by the green doll singing. (notice Cloe?)

Mom's Hall/Laundry/Den Project

2007-09-20T06:31:00.001-07:00

Seeing that most of the family hasn't seen any of the progress at Mom's house on her Hall/Laundry/Den Project I figured I would add a couple of pictures. The majority of the work has been contributed by David, with the help of James, Kurtis Pickett and Mike came over to take pictures (and helped a bit).

This is of course David and Mike hanging base boards (9/19/2007)

The picture was taken in the Kitchen door way looking towards the laundry room on the left and the family room-center. The left picture is with no flash, and is closer to the actual color. The picture on the right is with flash. The pictures are a tad bit blurry because I wasn't using the flash so that I could get a more accurate color representation. You will also notice the tile work in the laundry room (Separate picture not included in this post).

Below on the left is looking into the "Den" (Dining Room). The chandelier will be removed as well as the desk in the middle of the room. The picture on the right is about a 30 degree turn to the right (if you match the desk in the center of the room, you would almost have a panoramic picture).

Looking from the Family Room doorway towards the kitchen. These lights will also be removed and updated.

The carpet is scheduled to be installed today (9/20/07) and we anticipate having this place back up and running by this weekend.

Huntsville 5k and Half-Marathon

2007-09-12T17:12:00.001-07:00

Colette ran in the Ogden Half-Marathon in May, and she decided that she was going to run another one. In the process of committing to it, she drug me into it also. Well if I was going, then I wanted to take as many people as I could. We talked to Colette's sisters (veteran runners) and David and James and Sarah about it (rookies like myself). They initially all said yes. Well David started his training, and you all know how that ended up - if you forgot CLICK HERE to see what happened. Well James was busy and couldn't do it, but Sarah decided that she would join the ranks of the runners circle and would run the Huntsville Half-Marathon with us. This decision was made back in May. So ever since then we (Colette, Sarah and I) have been training. As part of our training we ran a 5k. Sarah ran with Jen in a SLC area 5k. Colette and I ran in a local church-sponsored 5k. We also did crazy things like run 9.5 miles when we were on vacation up at the Wright Cabin in July. Well after the countless hours and miles September 8th finally came.

It was a clear cool morning. It was cold enough that you needed a jacket but not too cold that you couldn't feel your extremities. We arrived around 7:30 with race time at 8:00. We stood in lines for the bathroom and checked in, pinned on our numbers and got ready for the moment that we had been training for to begin.

We lingered a bit in the back of the crowd, anticipating that we wouldn't be in the winner's circle, and not wanting to get trampled when the whistle blew. So at about 8:07 we started and off we went. We did about a mile loop around the Huntsville Park area before we hit the main road and headed North towards what would be the only view of the lake for the entire run.

Meanwhile at about 8:15 the 5k whistle blew and Daryl and Sybil were off and running. I am not sure what happened, but there is some speculation that Sybil may have missed a turn, so she did a lap around the lake before she made it to the finish line, and turns out she did quite well.

Half-Marathon Map
5k Map

Well back to the Half-ers. We ran in what could be described as a crude figure-8 pattern. So we did a loop then ran back past the park area and then did another loop before making it to the end. So David and Neil, along with Carl were there at the half way point to snap some progress pictures of us.

Oh, I have failed to mention, the other gal in the picture just behind Sarah is Kelli. She has been Sarah's running partner. Turns out she works at ADP, same as me.

I did something that is probably considered bad in the running/racing world, I took my camera and stopped to smell the roses...I mean, take pictures. It took mere seconds for each click and that was something that I was willing to sacrifice for a little fun and some fond memories.

Each of these numbers is the mile markers. And yes 10 means that we had ran 10 miles at that point. 10 miles, wow when you say it like that....

Now the mile 13 mile marker is only 0.1 miles away from the finish line since a Half-Marathon is 13.1 miles, so you can see the finish line just beyond the mile marker.

For those of you who may be wondering, crossing the finish line is a exhilarating, euphoric, and ecstatic feeling. As soon as you can see that finish line off in the distance, the adrenaline kicks in and the after-burners turn on. From that point we could see and hear the masses all gathered to cheer us on in our final moment, our moment of victory!

RACE RESULTS

The the days following the race, Mike was quoted:
"I am happy to say that I came I ran and I have gone home. I am happy that I ran. It was a lot of work getting to that point. I am definitely better conditioned now than any other time in my life to run long distances. (Not necessarily better shape, just better conditioned....) It was very gratifying to have accomplished something like that. I ran with Colette the entire 13.1 miles, and we crossed the finish line holding hands! I took my camera along for the ride and took some pictures along the way, which was kind of fun. I wasn't there to win a medal, I was there to prove to myself that I am able to do something that most people are not willing to attempt. It was a very fun and spirited experience. As a first timer - I felt good about my time, we came in just shy of 3 hours. I have mixed feeling about doing something of that magnitude again, but I guess time will tell. I still have stiff legs but have otherwise recovered from the strain of the run."

Sarah also added:
"I survived as well. It was a good experience. I worked hard to accomplish a goal and feel good. I ran with my friend [Kelli and] we decided to stay together. My only goal was to finish and I feel good about that. There are some pretty neat pictures too! "

Sand Dunes of UT

2007-09-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

On September 1st we decided to brave the heat and the crowds of the Sand Dunes. Mike and Colette went down with Neil and Sarah and some other family to enjoy the natural setting of lots and lots of rolling sandy slopes.

I couldn't help not to jump off of a steep slope.

Neil and Sarah couldn't help not to drive up a different steep slope! And yes, that is as steep as it looks! You have got to have mad skills and nerves of solid steel to do this, oh and a really cool 4-wheeler helps too!

Sarah and Neil discussing their plan of action!